Sermon for Sunday 25th March
2012
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Hebrews 5:5-10
John 12:20-33
‘having been made perfect,
he became the
source of eternal salvation for all who obey him,
having been
designated by God a high priest for ever
according to the order of Melchizedek’
A good friend was once at an ecumenical
conference. There were there representatives of all the Christian Churches and
as is the case on such occasions, there were ample small group sessions where
folk would share together their different experiences. My friend found himself
in a small group with a priest from the Orthodox Church, that church which
accounts for about a third of the world’s Christians. Well conversation moved
on to differing practices of Worship and my friend seeking to engage the
Orthodox Priest, who seemed to have become very quiet, asked him if he would
describe worship in his tradition. ‘Worship?’ he replied, ‘how can one describe
Worship’, and descended back into silence. Along also now with the rest of the
group.
It seems, as the American Writer Marva Dawn
puts it, that all too often the church descends into ‘Worship Wars’ – where
Everyone it seems has some sort of opinion which they are eager to voice. ‘ The
Old hymns are completely outdated’ – ‘the new songs are so banal’ – Church is
not complete without a Choir – No! A Band is what is needed! – Must we have so
much Liturgy – Oh How I Love the Old Prayer Book – Oh How I Love the New Zealand prayer book. Worship is all too often it seems, to steal the words
of Macbeth about life ‘a tale . . . full of sound and fury’ - but, if the Orthodox Priest is right only
an idiot would try to tell it, and it signifies Far from Nothing.
Yet however much people are ready with
their opinions about worship - pretty
exclusively it must be said in the Protestant Churches – it seems that when we
come to the Scriptures we Avoid like the plague those passages where Worship is
thrust to the fore. If I were to ask which book of the Bible, people were most
wary of and found most difficult – then I guess most folk would say ‘The
Revelation of St John the Divine’ – a book which is Profoundly to do with
Worship – false and true worship, not of course that that has stopped a Lot of
people talking about it. But running it a close second, surely must be the
Letter to the Hebrews, which seems utterly impenetrable to most modern readers
and also contains a rebuke to those who don’t understand it. [ Along with Dire
warnings about falling away!]Immediately after the passage we heard a moment
ago – we hear this. ‘About this we have
Much to Say that is hard to explain, since you have become dull in
understanding. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, need someone
to teach you again the basic elements of the oracles of God!’. It is almost
as if it is saying – not only don’t you understand worship in its fullness, you
haven’t even got off first base – you are still in the nursery.
And we Bridle at that of course – well we’ve
been worshipping all our lives we say – OK then – who is Melchizedek? What does
it mean that Christ has been designated by God a high Priest in the order of
Melchizedek? Why does the author go on for THREE CHAPTERS about Melchizedek???
Plainly if this book is all about Christian
Worship, then perhaps we too need to keep more silence about it. Certainly at
one level this passage presents a Profound puzzle concerning the whole thrust
of the book of Hebrews to this point – for up until chapter 5 the key theme has been how Jesus has been
Better – Greater than – what has gone before. He is greater than the prophets –
the book opens ‘ Long ago God spoke to
our ancestors, in many and various ways – but in these last days he has
spoken to us by a Son,’ - Greater
than Moses – ‘Now Moses was faithful in
all god’s house as a servant – Christ however was faithful over God’s
house as a Son’ – and now as the Melchizedek section begins, Christ is being
portrayed as Greater than the High
Priest of the line of Aaron, the high priest in the Temple at the time of Jesus.
And to make the point – the writer begins by making the point that Christ
is a Valid High Priest – for he does not appoint himself – but was appointed by
God as was Aaron – but then goes on that he is of a different Order – that of
Melchizedek – not of Aaron.
So in Christ we do not have the
continuation of the order of Aaron, the order of the Time from Moses to Jesus –
but rather the continuation of a Much older order – that Of Melchizedek. In a
real sense there is a suggestion that although Christ’s priesthood is the
greatest, it is paralleled by that of Melchizedek.
So Just who Was Melchizedek?? Well we read
about him right back in the book of Genesis – The King of Elam, Fought against
some of the neighbouring Kings and somehow Lot, Abram’s cousin got caught up in
it and Captured. So Abram set out to rescue his relative. Having defeated the
King of Elam he is on his way home when, out of nowhere we read‘Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and
wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) And he blessed him
[Abram] and said,
“Blessed
be Abram by God Most High,
Maker of heaven and earth;
20 and blessed be God Most High,
who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”
Maker of heaven and earth;
20 and blessed be God Most High,
who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”
And
Abram gave him[Melchizedek] a tenth of everything.
And the writer to the Hebrews goes on to make the point that the lesser is
blessed by the Greater – that Melchizedek is Greater than Abraham and perhaps
we hear here an echo of a dispute Jesus has with the Pharisees – Are you
greater than our Father Abraham? To which this reading from Hebrews answers
with a resounding Yes!
And the parallels don’t end there - Melchizedek is a Priest King – King of
Salem, which means King of Peace – and his name MelchiZedek means King of Righteousness.
He is Priest, King of Righteousness and Peace. And Christ is both our righteousness
and our Peace. And we are told – having neither beginning nor End – but Resembling
the son of God – he is a priest forever. How can this be?? For this is the
thing – we know nothing of Melchisedek – he pops in and out of the story - there is no hint of birth or death. Just as
The King Priest – Christ is from all eternity to eternity - This is Most mysterious. Perhaps it is best to
say that like the three visitors to Abraham – somehow Melchizedek is a
theophany, or better a Christophany – Christ making himself known in the story
from of old, as with the figure in the fiery furnace in Daniel.
We are left unsure – it is clear we are
face to face with a profound Mystery with regard to this Priestly worshipful
ministry, the book of Hebrews, shot through with the matter of Worship leaves
us saying – ‘we do not know, we are not sure’ -
and that it seems is important for two reasons.
Firstly, that all those worship wars seem
in the end to boil down to one thing – a desire for worship that fits us. However
it is stated – those who go to war over worship want something for themselves –
whether it be beautiful language, or ‘music that makes me feel close to God’,
or making it Relevant. What is essentially sought is less Worship that is
focused towards the glorifying of the Son of Man, than Worship fits My
categories of the Good and the True and the Beautiful. Of Marva Dawn it was
once said she led a service of worship at the end of which a lady rather
haughtily said to her ‘I did not like Any of the hymns today!’ and Dawn
replied, ‘that’s Ok, we weren’t worshipping you!’
We live in an age where like Procrustes, we
must make everything Fit – we have no time for mystery – everything must be
brought down to the level of the human and if possible My Level – there must be
NO Mystery!! We Must understand!! If we cannot it cannot be True – everything
must be brought down.
And here some might argue, But That is
Exactly the point of the Incarnation – Christ became like us – he came down, so
that it Could be all on our terms – But that is Only half the story and if it
is left there we are left in a swamp of self centered sin and not saved. No! The
work of Christ in his Incarnation is not merely to step down, and that in
itself is enough of a profound mystery for us to be more reticent in saying
what it means for us all – no - it is to
step down so that he may be lifted up – and So draw all people unto Him.
He steps down to our life – in order to be lifted up – to be Glorified and so
to lift us up to His Glorified Life.
This is a Profound mystery – and we come
now in the church’s year to the culmination of that mystery – the Paschal
Mystery – Christ’s own self offering upon the Cross – the Priest King glorified
for the sake of the whole world, not to condemn but that the world might be
saved through him. And it is the coming of the Greeks, their presence amplified
in that it is the two Greek named Disciples, Philip and Andrew who tell Jesus –
the profoundest of Mysteries that out of the depth of time and an obscure race
– prefigured in the wandering Aramean, Abraham, ministered to by this shadowy
yet Gloprious figure of Melchizedek – from this mysterious root might come the
saviour of the world.
And in doing so to exercise a Priesthood
which can find no ready parallel, only in this strange story of the Priest who
appears out of nowhere with . . . Bread and Wine. We are pointed by
Melchizedek’s action back to Christ. Thus when the disciples were told in the
upper room to remember him in Bread and Wine they would be thrown back on this
ancient type – not the Priesthood of Aaron, but of Melchizedek – here was the
Priest who lives for ever, without beginning or end. And so they must have been
thinking in terms of a Sacrificing Priest and they were right, but of a type Never
seen.
Christ unlike the High Priests of the
Aaronic line, offers Himself, a lamb with out spot or blame from before the
foundation of the world. As we approach Holy week we hear this announcement
from Christ himself – the hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified –
truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies it
remains but a single grain; but if it dies it bears much fruit – and when I am
lifted up from the earth I will draw all people to me.
So we look into the Heart of Worship –
Christ’s Own self offering – this is why we should fear to speak of Worship for
this is its heart, the self offering of the Son of God for our sins. All
Worship comes from This Root. It is not primarily a response to it – rather it
is Worship that Springs from it – Worship that can Only be understood in
thelight of it. Jesus goes on ‘Those who love their life lose it, and those who
hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me
must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.’ To worship in
spirit and in truth is to follow in the path of this One True Sacrifice
As the grain falls to the ground and dies
what does it do – but bears much fruit – many many more grains, that themselves
fall to the ground and die, That do not themselves turn back from carrying
their Cross because We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the
soul, a hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain, where Jesus, a
forerunner on our behalf, has entered, having become a high priest for ever
according to the order of Melchizedek.
He
has gone before us – our Great High Priest – revealing the self offering that
is the Heart of Worship and so let us follow Him in this season of the Paschal
Mystery, of the Lamb, slain before the foundation of the World.
Amen
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